Events that led to World War II

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Introduction

The Second World War was fought around 1939-1945 and it involved most of world’s nations that eventually formed two opposing military alliances called the Axis and the Allies. It was so wide spread and is said to have involved over 100 million military personnel. It marked the only use of nuclear weaponry in war and is estimated to have cost about 60 million lives. The war was fought from the streets of Stalingrad to the hedgerows of Normandy and through to the jungles of Burma and much of the Europe continent. It was majorly fought for global domination and it led to complete disaster never seen before in human history.

#1. The treaty of Versailles failed to solve anything. People from victorious nations were left feeling guilty because of reparations. More so, Hitler’s early aggression looked justified due to loss of all the land to other countries. Also, considering its location, Germany was surrounded by many small nations that could easily fall prey to Germany. The League of Nations also contributed to rise of war because it failed to keep the peace. From the beginning, it was weak and had already failed in Abyssinia and Manchuria. More so, it failed to prevent Hitler from breaking the treaty of Versailles, thus it could not stand for what it had been created for: to foster peace among member countries. The League of Nations failed to achieve one of its core missions: disarmament. This made countries engage in an arms race since every country wanted to be secure in case another war erupted. This therefore made countries to move away from the failing league and decided to engage in war. As if that was not enough, France and Britain left collective security and instead turned to appeasement.

Appeasement encouraged aggression hence encouraging war. It made Hitler think that he was more superior to others and that no one would stop him. This made him be too aggressive and went to extreme ends in being powerful. Stalin was made to make the Nazi-soviet pact by Sudetenland because he failed to trust Britain. Another factor that led to the war was Hitler himself. He was an expansionist. Many historians believe that he initiated World War 2 because he thought Germany lost world war one unfairly. His rearmament rally in 1935 broke the treaty of Versailles and led to division of nations opposing Germany. His 1936 remilitarization of Rhineland was his first military action and made France lose the opportunity of stopping Hitler.

The war impacted the rest of the world in a number of ways. It ended domination of the world by Western Europe the war that was mainly initiated by Hitler devastated Europe politically and economically resulting in domination of Europe by the United States and Soviet Union in place of France, Germany and Great Britain. However though, two decades lattermost Europe’s possessions were independent. After the war, sympathy for Jews reached its peak. The creation of Israel might not have been possible had it not have been for the holocaust. Israel has caused instability in the Middle East and has also created some wars that are still fought currently in the region. The war also led to America’s dollar becoming an international currency. Factories in Europe had been completely wiped out but those in America were still intact hence American economy grew very fast. Also, more scholars migrated from Europe to America e.g. scientist, economist, this made America stronger. Majority of the Jews migrated from Europe to the USA. Development of atomic bomb led to fear of another war outbreak.

The war caused the United States of America $341 billion. The entire world war led to loss of about 1.075 trillion! It led to the loss of about 670,846 lives of soldiers. The loss was as immense as families lost their beloved ones.

The Allies won the war because the British and its colonies repelled the axis in siege of Malta. Also, British forces repelled Italians and Germans from advancing into the west. Italy and Germany were under continuous bombardment mainly by RAF. The Allies powers outthought and outnumbered the Axis powers. Allies continued pouring more troops while the axis lost grounds and their resources ran out very quickly. The Germans were surrounded by Russians from the east and British who killed 50% of the German army. Germany also equipped themselves horribly for summer while it was winter when they went to conquer Russia hence they could not stand the weather.

#2. I think Truman made the correct decision in bombing Japan using atomic bombs. If he had invaded Japan, it would then mean that more and more people would have died. These would include American soldiers and about a million Japanese nationals. He decided not to announce to the public that he was going to use atomic bombs on Japan because he would have been condemned or crucified. So many people had died in the Japanese land due to the war but he targeted Hiroshima and Nagasaki because the two towns were the major suppliers of military equipments. He therefore did not have the intention of killing so many Japanese because if he wanted so, he would have dropped the bomb in Tokyo. It also served to end communism that was rapidly growing in Europe. It can then be considered as one of the toughest decisions to ever be made by a president.

Truman decided to use atomic bombs to attack Japan because, some people say, he was saving lives. He wanted to end the war quickly so as to avoid disastrous land invasion that would claim more lives. He would have just continued fighting the Japanese without use of atomic bomb because he had already subdued them long time ago.

Another reason why Truman decided to use the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was because of the tension that mounted between the soviet union and America after Germanys surrender, pertaining disposition of war ton Europe. The Americans were worried that the soviets were becoming so influential if they joined the war in mid august against Japan as planned. He therefore believed that if the atomic war ended the war, the Americans would have achieved supremacy that would come after the war over the soviets. This was because America had spent 2 billion dollars in the development of the atomic bomb and it had mobilized over 120,000 people. Linking the massive destructive effects of this atomic bomb to the end of the war would help make the bomb significant.

President Truman had other several options of bringing the war to an end without necessarily having to bomb Nagasaki and Hiroshima. One of the options was to continue the blockade and the bombings. It would achieve this by using B-29 firebombing raids on Japan cities together with marine forces to force Japan to surrender. More so, he would demonstrate the atomic bomb without actually using it on Japan as this would serve to show Japanese leaders that they faced destruction if they did not give up immediately. Another option was to wait for the Russians. This is because Russia would declare war on Japan in a few weeks time. Due to threats of invasion from both Americans and Russians could have made Japanese leaders surrender. Another option was to negotiate peace. Truman knew that Hirohito and Suzuki were trying to on how to end the war and could have discussed peace terms with them but Truman did not accept anything else apart from unconditional surrender. The Japanese leaders would have most likely surrendered if they were told that they would keep the emperor and that his position would be kept and that Hirohito would not be tried as a war criminal.

Conclusion

The war finally came to an end. It will remain the most disastrous war to have ever been fought by man. There was loss of lives and money. Everyone wishes that such a war does not repeat in the coming years.